The IOC insisted last week that gay athletes and spectators at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi will have nothing to fear from Russian’s “homosexuality anti-propaganda” law, which prohibits all public expressions of support for LGBT people. But Russia’s Sports Minister is sending a different message:

“The law talks not about banning a non-traditional orientation but about other things, about propaganda and implicating minors,” Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the R-Sport news agency.

“No one is banning a sportsman with a non-traditional sexual orientation from going to Sochi. But if he goes out onto the street and starts to make propaganda, then of course he will be brought to responsibility.

“As a sportsman, he should respect the law of a country,” Mutko added. “Come (to Sochi), but don’t get young people involved, don’t make propaganda. This is what we are talking about,” Mutko said.

Those found guilty of “making propaganda,” however ill-defined that term is, will be subject to fines and jail terms.

Gay speedskater Blake Skjellerup from New Zealand has announced that he will be wearing a rainbow pin while in Sochi: “If it gets me in trouble, then so be it.”

Man, I have to wonder, what is that dude so angry about? So many of these anti-gay people…they just look angry or have a real sour expression on their face all the time. I know a few people who are very anti-gay, Fundamentalist Christians mostly (I’m no longer religious myself) and some of them are the meanest people you ever did see. So much for the “Joy of the Lord” huh?

I think some of these people classify the fact that they ‘have to acknowledge that queers are people too’ as pro-gay propaganda. They seem to require someone to hate. I wonder why, it sure don’t say that in the Bible. LOVE thy neighbor.

He’ll be at some risk that a grandstanding pol or covertly-sponsored thug will chose to use him for a painful example of their disapproval of us all. That’s a lot more risk than I’ll be taking when I protest, boycott, and write over here (although I can’t speak for you, of course).

Ben, you seem cynical about the effectiveness of wearing a rainbow pin ir one goes to Sochi. Question: how much more will a boycott of the Olympics do to “comfort those russian LGBT teens who are outed on youtube”?

The previous boycott, in 1978, of the Moscow Olympics, was non-traditional for us. The U.S. debated boycotting Hitler’s 1936 Olympics, but narrowly decided to go. In the event, Jesse Owens, a black man, took away four gold medals and was the star of the games. I for one would love to see Blake Skjellerup or some other gay athlete do the same for us next year.

Boycotts have never gotten us much. Boycotting Coors and Carls Jr. was pretty much of a bust, however rabid some of us were about doing it. Civil disobedience often works. Boycotts in general don’t have a good record, as I’m sure OMM et al could tell us, from their “successful” boycotts of Disney and Penney’s, etc.

Finally, a boycott will not hurt Russia. It will hurt the U.S. athletes who’ve trained all their lives for this opportunity. I’m abstaining from Russian products, but

There is much more to a boycott than just not going or buying a product, or even the results of the boycott itself. The Coors boycott may not have been deemed entirely successful, but it did have benefits, such as the galvanizing of a community and the standing up, publicly, and saying “NO MORE!”. Boycotts are not just about getting the results you want, but getting the attention for the issue you need attention for. Just look at the conversation this proposed boycott of the Olympics, and the boycott of Russian products has produced. This goes beyond just being an American Boycott, but one that is now worldwide. Sometimes the attention is far more important than the outcome.
And sometimes just showing up and wearing a rainbow pin is just as important, especially when faced with being possibly jailed, beaten or murdered. And yes, the athlete who says they will wear pins are putting themselves in harms way for what they believe, a bit more risky than the boycott. What are you risking, Ben? A martini?

â€œNo one is banning a sportsman with a non-traditional sexual orientation from going to Sochi. But if he goes out onto the street and starts to make propaganda, then of course he will be brought to responsibility.”

If this is the case, then let these games be the rainbow gayest ever, just not outside the game’s’ arena e.g.”onto the streets”. Why go onto the streets when you can be rainbow filmed within the Arena for the entire world to see? If sponsors would jump on board, that would certainly be helpful.

Let’s not forget that Russia is hosting the World Cup in 2018, so we may be in for more of the same treatment 5 years from now.

In fact, 2014 will be a very interesting time for international sports as Brazil, a very gay-friendly country, gets the WC that year (and the summer games in 2016) while Russia gets the winter games. It will certainly be easy to draw distinctions between the two.

In this original BTB Investigation, we unveil the tragic story of Kirk Murphy, a four-year-old boy who was treated for “cross-gender disturbance” in 1970 by a young grad student by the name of George Rekers. This story is a stark reminder that there are severe and damaging consequences when therapists try to ensure that boys will be boys.

When we first reported on three American anti-gay activists traveling to Kampala for a three-day conference, we had no idea that it would be the first report of a long string of events leading to a proposal to institute the death penalty for LGBT people. But that is exactly what happened. In this report, we review our collection of more than 500 posts to tell the story of one nation’s embrace of hatred toward gay people. This report will be updated continuously as events continue to unfold. Check here for the latest updates.

In 2005, the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote that “[Paul] Cameron’s ‘science’ echoes Nazi Germany.” What the SPLC didn”t know was Cameron doesn’t just “echo” Nazi Germany. He quoted extensively from one of the Final Solution’s architects. This puts his fascination with quarantines, mandatory tattoos, and extermination being a “plausible idea” in a whole new and deeply disturbing light.

From the Inside: Focus on the Family’s “Love Won Out”

On February 10, I attended an all-day “Love Won Out” ex-gay conference in Phoenix, put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus International. In this series of reports, I talk about what I learned there: the people who go to these conferences, the things that they hear, and what this all means for them, their families and for the rest of us.

Using the same research methods employed by most anti-gay political pressure groups, we examine the statistics and the case studies that dispel many of the myths about heterosexuality. Download your copy today!

Anti-gay activists often charge that gay men and women pose a threat to children. In this report, we explore the supposed connection between homosexuality and child sexual abuse, the conclusions reached by the most knowledgeable professionals in the field, and how anti-gay activists continue to ignore their findings. This has tremendous consequences, not just for gay men and women, but more importantly for the safety of all our children.

Anti-gay activists often cite the “Dutch Study” to claim that gay unions last only about 1½ years and that the these men have an average of eight additional partners per year outside of their steady relationship. In this report, we will take you step by step into the study to see whether the claims are true.

Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council submitted an Amicus Brief to the Maryland Court of Appeals as that court prepared to consider the issue of gay marriage. We examine just one small section of that brief to reveal the junk science and fraudulent claims of the Family “Research” Council.

The FBI’s annual Hate Crime Statistics aren’t as complete as they ought to be, and their report for 2004 was no exception. In fact, their most recent report has quite a few glaring holes. Holes big enough for Daniel Fetty to fall through.